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We are creatures of habit – from the time we get up in the morning until we go to bed at night we engage in countless daily routines such as brushing our teeth or turning on our computer. Research shows that we make upwards of 11,000 decisions every day–thankfully most are unconscious and involuntary – meaning… we don’t really have to think about them, we just do it!

A habit is defined as a settled or regular tendency or practice especially one that is hard to give up. Over the past few months I established a habit of reading the news feeds morning and night or watching news on TV. I recently came to the conclusion that I was devoting too much time to hearing the same events played out over and over again and the stories were mostly negative and often horrible. I’ve made a conscious decision to catch up on news only once a day, and not at night so as not to disturb my sleep. I recognized that in order to change this habit I needed to replace it with a new habit that was more satisfying. I have decided to use this 30 minute daily pocket of time to connect with business colleagues on social media – to read informative and motivational articles, respond to posts and submit material such as this blog. I hope to ‘see’ you more regularly online!

If you’ve recognized that one or more of your habits are no longer serving you well, ask yourself this question: What are the costs of sticking with this habit? Or conversely –What are the benefits of changing this practice? What new practice would you like to develop? It’s important to identify the benefits or WIFM (What’s in it For Me) in order to build momentum towards your new goal.

Remember it takes a minimum of 21 days to develop a new practice into a habit and then you must continue with it to ensure it sticks?

What new habit would you like to develop? Share it below if you feel so inclined. Going public with your goals gives it a boost.

Do you believe that people want to learn, grow and contribute – and that organizations want to grow their bottom line?

Do you also believe that when managers regularly coach their staff engagement soars?

Achieve certification in the Confident Coach™2 day coaching skills program and train managers how to coach and inspire their teams.

The 2 day Train-the-Trainer Certification Program, will be held in Toronto, Ontario at OTEC’s Head Office. This training will provide you with the knowledge and licence to market and deliver the 2 day Confident Coach™Program to managers in any organization of any size.

Enhance your professional standing – get certified and make an impact!

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Studies show that employees thrive in the workplace when they know that their supervisor cares about them as people, and invests time and resources to support their development. Coaching is a vehicle to achieve this level of engagement and is predicated on the following: a culture of trust is present (an absolute requirement for coaching to be effective); the coachee (employee) is receptive to the idea of change; and the coach (manager) exhibits superior communication skills, such as listening, questioning and feedback skills to empower and inspire the employee to take action.

How do you measure the effectiveness of coaching? Outside of conducting a full-blown employee engagement survey, you can measure the success of your coaching endeavours through observing the following:

You “ask” more than “tell” or direct.

You provide 5 positive comments to every 1 critical comment daily.

You meet regularly (monthly/quarterly) with staff to discuss their needs, goals and motivations.

People find ways to leverage their strengths and manage their weaknesses.

Less push back from staff.

When you take time to coach your employees, you’re effectively saying “I care about you and your job satisfaction – not just your performance”. Please visit www.theconfidentcoach.com for additional articles on coaching skills and to learn about our Confident Coach™ training program for managers.

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Many organizations are successfully using behavioural assessments to augment their selection process and career development programs. When behavioural profiling is used in conjunction with job benchmarking we are able to help companies pin point the root cause of many business issues such as high turnover, low morale, low productivity and weak sales. We help our clients assess the key skills required in mission critical roles and evaluate incumbents using validated objective assessments against these benchmarks to identify ‘fit’ for the role. We then create a gap analysis that clearly shows if their people and/or the roles need to be reconfigured and where development resources are best allocated.

Please enjoy these case studies that highlight the tremendous benefits to your business of using the job benchmarking process. Feel free to contact us for more information.

There are many reasons why people do not complete tasks that lead them to achieve their goals, even goals that they were initially pumped about. External variables over which a person has no control can sometimes derail a goal (such as a lack of resources, for example, or changing priorities). If we’re honest though, there are many times when we simply lose interest in the goal and its associated rewards/benefits. This is often on account of one or more of the following:

1. The goals are notSMART: Their goals are not specific, measurable, attainable, realistic or tangible or any combination of these. This sets the stage for a lack of commitment and follow-through.

2. Lack of Accountability: There is no accountability and no consequence for failing to follow through. Again, this begs the question – is this is smart goal and has the individual truly bought into it?

3. Behavioural trait: The habit of procrastination has become their ‘norm’. It’s their status quo and it’s become such an ingrained behaviour, it fails to register with the person.

4. Mental disorder: The individual may be suffering from anxiety, depression or other mental illness or disorder such as ADD and my not even be aware of it. This can explain the lack of sustained focus.

5. Overwhelmed: The individual may have too much on their plate and they don’t know how to say ‘no’ (or don’t want to). A fear of rejection or fear of disappointing others can cause this. When a person takes on too much, they end up disappointing themselves, and the familiar pattern of non-completion repeats itself.

If you observe someone in your team or your family failing to make progress on their goals, open up a dialogue with them to help uncover the reasons. Or share this article with them to see if any of the bullets ring true for them. Early intervention might prevent them from developing a lifelong pattern of failing to complete things, a habit that gets harder to break as time goes on.

For coaching assistance, please contact Rebecca Heaslip, Executive Coach and President of Leadership Insight Inc. at rheaslip@leadership-insight.com or 888-878-5913.

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Many businesses are quieter in the summer with staff taking coveted vacations, which is a good thing! Now is the perfect time for business owners and leaders to sit back and reflect on successes and challenges in their business and personal life, and commit to developing a strategic plan to navigate growth.

When James Fischer, author of Navigating the Growth Curve, researched 650 CEOs over the course of six years, he identified three main reasons why companies failed:

They lacked a sustainable profit model.

They couldn’t create a work community that produced a high level of employee engagement.

They didn’t have a model for which they could understand and predict the growth of their company.

In summary, these companies were tackling challenges as they arose without an understanding of what to anticipate as they navigated change, thus, preventing them from becoming agile organizations.

With my recent certification in Growth Curve™, I am able to do for your company what I have helped many of you do for your people – provide validated assessment of strengths, areas for improvement and develop smart action plans. Our Growth Strategy Program offers small and mid-sized companies and divisions of larger organizations the following . . .

A comprehensive organizational X-Ray assessment of your company’s current stage of growth as viewed by the CEO and his/her team.

Easy to read reports detailing the top challenges that are impacting the company’s ability to grow.

A strategy session with the senior team to develop a plan that has the team agreeing on the key initiatives to solve that will help move the company or division forward.

SPECIAL! It’s my pleasure to offer you this exciting new program at a discounted rate for the next two months. Contact us to discuss before September 1st and we will honour a 30% discount on strategy sessions held before November 30th, 2013.

Our goal is to help you manage your business before it manages you!

Let’s help you build an agile organization and engaged staff for 2013 and beyond. For more information, please call 888-878-5913.

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A hummingbird symbolizes abundant joy and the beauty of life. It teaches us to appreciate the magic of being alive and to savor every precious moment.

Hummingbirds are fearless and mysterious – nature’s marvel – with a wing speed of up to 80 beats per second and a heart rate of 1260 beats per second, they appear to operate by pure instinct. Likely, we will never know. Hummingbirds come and go in the blink of an eye.

The hummingbird is considered by many native peoples to have supernaturalpower and spiritual significance; for some it is a symbol of getting to the heart of the matter. For others, it symbolizes faith and a blissful awakening of our unique talents and abilities. As we witness the hummingbird hover above the flower in our garden, almost motionless, we suspend disbelief and marvel at their magnificence. Our faith in our ability to accomplish anything we set out to achieve – even that which seems impossible – is restored.

To have a close encounter with a hummingbird is to experience the energy of the universe. Their beauty and yours’ is revealed. Please enjoy this informative PBS Video on The Hummingbird.

You are at a crossroads. Your dilemma is whether to keep the job you have or take a chance on a new job with a new company in a new part of the city. You used your smart phone app to gauge the distance to the new job from home and it seems it will add another 20-30 minutes to your commute. But you will get a pay increase and you won’t have to deal with your grumpy boss anymore. You did a thorough Google search of the potential new boss and the company and nothing untoward showed up. He seems to be an okay guy from what you can tell. You texted your friends to get their opinion and they all talk positively about the new company (from the little they know). Most of your research seems to favour the move yet the more information you collect the more confused you become. And now you’re feeling somewhat anxious. Is it fear of change? Possibly. Or is your gut trying to tell you something?

Recent Poll Results

Here are the results of a recent poll we conducted using social media to ask:

Does access to unlimited information via the internet and technology enhance or hinder our ability to use intuition for decision making?

As you can see from these results, 51% of people appreciate having ready access to information to validate our gut instinct and to present new possibilities. Only 10% feel this access can overwhelm our senses while 39% feel that information can both enable and distract us from our ability to trust our gut for decision making. In the example above – let’s call the subject Ashley – now needs to find a quiet place to be alone, where she can enter a relaxed state by taking a few deep breaths, even meditating and ask herself, ‘What is my heart’s desire?’ (What do I really want?) ‘What am I afraid of’? And finally ‘What should I do?’ The answers will come from her intuition, her inner wisdom, which is pure, authentic and right.

How to access your intuitive wisdom

Next time you’re facing a decision like this, use this process; make note of your desired change (describe how you feel, think, your emotions, attitudes etc); research the options and then access your inner wisdom for clarity and focus. Check back to what your gut was telling you about the need for change and see what element of that change now resonates with you in a positive way. Pay attention to your body sensations for clues. Keep track of your success using this process. You might find it difficult at first but it will get easier. And please forward me your intuition success stories by responding to this blog or emailing me at rheaslip@leadership-insight.com. What’s your gut telling you?™